


i always come back to you

by Kazutoes



Category: The Social Network (2010)
Genre: Heavy Angst, M/M, breakdown - Freeform, mark is so d o n e, overwhelming emotions, wardo be there for him please
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:27:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23163247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kazutoes/pseuds/Kazutoes
Summary: Mark breaks down over the stress of starting up Facebook, and Eduardo is there for him. Even though it takes a little bit of begging on Mark's part.
Relationships: Eduardo Saverin/Mark Zuckerberg
Comments: 5
Kudos: 27





	i always come back to you

**Author's Note:**

> CEO OF OOP THIS WAS ANGSTY AND VENT-WORTHY OOP
> 
> anyway i'm posting this during the whole corona pandemic if past me looks at this later or if anyone is reading this during it. Stay safe please!

Five hundred thousand members.

Mark's wrists are killing him as he continues to type, lines of code scrolling past his eyes like a blur.

The thump of music seems to align with the pulsing in his head as the party continues to rage on outside his room. There's still so much left to be done, yet all they're doing is partying.

It's 4 in the morning. He feels like he wants to collapse but he can't, not when he's the only one working on this. He can't even wake Dustin to help him, the only person in this house he truly trusted right now to help him with coding.

And Wardo…

There was nothing more Mark wanted except Eduardo being here with him. But he's in New York right now, not here, and he doesn't know what to do.

Facebook is moving faster than he ever thought possible. The servers in the back room were constantly trying to overheat, even resorting to Dustin running out to grab fans to keep them cooled down.

The threat of sleep attempts to overcome him as syntax errors come up when the code compiles. 

One of Sean's girls shrieks and giggles out in the living room, his flow of concentration breaking off fully. He rips off his headphones and stands up, breathing heavily.

He’s so fucking overwhelmed and tired, he can’t take this. It wasn’t often that he felt alone against the world, but now is definitely one of those times.

Mark grabs his cell phone off the desk and throws the door open, the music suddenly getting so much louder.

"Mark!" He can hear Sean yell, very obviously drunk. Not today, not right now.

He quickly runs over to the farthest bathroom, away from all the noise and slams the door, tears threatening to spill over as the world grew quiet.

He was too tired for this.

Flipping open his cell phone, he presses three and shakily holds the phone up to his ear, almost praying to hear Wardo's voice.

He hears the click of a prerecorded message, and his heart nearly stops.

"Hello, this is Eduardo Saverin. Sorry I’m not at the phone right now, pleas-"

'Wardo isn't available right now.' is all that ran through his head as he slides to the floor, a hand covering his mouth. He wraps his arms around his knees as the prerecorded message ends, reading out the instructions.

“Press 1 to record a voicemail,” It said, and Mark jams a finger into the 1 button. He brings the phone back up to his ear, stifling a sob.

He has no idea where to start. There were so many things bothering him, that they were all colliding into each other to create one big problem.

“I- Look, Wardo, I don't know if you care," He starts off, sucking in a quiet breath. "and I know I told you that you were going to get left behind…”  
He stops, tilting his head up to the dim ceiling. 

"I just, I don’t know what to do," He whispers, a sob punctuating his sentence.

If he listens close enough, he can hear the din of the EDM music Sean has playing, the faint smell of weed and maybe even something worse. He ignores the twist of his stomach as his unhelpful mind thinks of needles, before speaking again.

"You're not here, nobody can help me code, Sean just keeps bringing over girls and distracting the interns," He says, his frustration finally pouring out of him as his tears spilled over. "Even though we got the angel investment, it doesn't feel better, I just feel worse…"

He runs a hand through his curly locks, pressing his face into his shoulder.

“I don’t think I can do this,” he murmurs, vaguely aware of how much he’s shaking right now. He feels so pathetic.

How is he only 19 and breaking down because of a fucking website?

"I need you, Wardo," His tears were soaking his dark shirt. “I can’t do this without my CFO..."

The phone beeps, signalling that the voicemail was about to end.

“I’m sorry,” He whispers, before the phone says in it's robotic voice, “Message sent to recipient.”

He snaps the phone shut and lets it clatter to the floor.

His eyes slowly slip shut as the pull of exhaustion clouds his vision, his thoughts slowing. He can feel himself fall to the ground before one final thought passes through his head, letting the pull of sleep drag him down.

"Wardo…"  
\---------------------------------------  
Even though it felt like he was flying out every other week, it never got any easier.

Eduardo sighs as he finally steps off the plane, happy to finally feel solid ground again. He had almost immediately left his apartment after Mark called him, finding a flight that was just about to take off in 2 hours.

Wrapping his coat tighter around himself, he walked through the gate and turned towards the baggage claim. He stops for a moment, remembering his phone.

“Shit-” He mumbles, turning on his phone and hoping that Christy hadn’t sent him any more messages.

_One missed call from Mark Zuckerberg._

And below it,

_Voicemail received from Mark Zuckerberg._

He couldn’t help but be confused. Mark rarely ever calls him these days, much less leave voicemails. A small pang of worry hits his chest before he begins to walk into an empty corridor, pressing play.

"Look, Wardo, I don’t know if you care…”

Eduardo couldn’t help but immediately notice the change in tone. Mark rarely ever showed his emotions in his voice, even less so if they were strong. Something was very wrong.

"And I know I said you were going to get left behind…”

A grimace appears on his face as he remembers Mark’s angry words at the Palo Alto house.

“I just- I don’t know what to do,”

His heart breaks as he can hear Mark sob over the phone, his own eyes welling up with tears. He can’t ever remember a time where Mark was actively upset, much less… like this.

“Oh, Mark,” He whispers to himself, leaning against the wall. The voicemail continues to play.

“I need you, Wardo, I can’t do this without my CFO,” Mark’s voice became way more broken as he went on, actively stifling sobs.

There’s a pause of silence before one last phrase was said, breaking Eduardo’s heart the most.

“I’m sorry,”

Eduardo’s phone beeps as the message ends.

“Oh my god,” He whispers to himself, snapping his phone shut. It felt like this wasn’t real. As angry as he was at Mark, he wouldn’t expect him to… breakdown.

As he rushes through the airport, he can't help but think of what would drive Mark to that point. What had Sean done? He had a bad feeling about him ever since he met him, and if he messed with his best friend- no...

He shook his head before focusing on getting to the house as fast as possible.  
\--------------------------------------  
It was raining again.

He can’t help but push down the impending sense of deja vu as he walks up the steps to the house. There was something else that was more pressing to his attention.

The door was already unlocked, his heart jumping into his throat. He pushes onto the door silently, suddenly getting hit by the smell of weed.  
"  
Ugh,” Eduardo thinks, covering his nose when he steps in. He is so kicking Sean out by morning.

He steps into the living room, finding it a disaster. Sean and some intern are in the corner, smoking some sort of blunt.

“Where’s Mark?” Eduardo asks angrily, resisting the urge to collide his fist into Sean’s face. Sean just shrugs, passing the blunt back to the confused intern.

“I don’t know, in the bathroom? I think he stole some weed…”

Eduardo walks over to the bathroom, slowly opening the door. He resists the urge to actually knock Sean's lights out.

He’s immediately greeted by the sight of Mark crumpled on the floor, dried tear tracks evident on his face.

“Mark…” Eduardo whimpers, kneeling down to cradle him in his arms.

He can’t help but brush a piece of curly hair away from Mark’s face, tears collecting in his eyes.

Mark’s eyes open up slowly, his bright blue eyes having trouble focusing. He looks confused for a moment before finally meeting Eduardo’s brown eyes, his face relaxing into a sleepy expression.

“Wardo…” He breathes out, before his eyes slowly slide shut once more. “You came…”

“Of course you idiot,” Eduardo laughs wetly, picking Mark up bridal style. “I’m the guy who wants to help.”

Eduardo exits the bathroom with precise care, careful not to jostle Mark. He can feel Mark become dead weight as he walks through the house, falling back asleep. 

If he had to guess, this came from a very long coding tear that just caught up with him. From the doorway he can see Dustin getting up, looking at his computer with a small sigh.

“Dustin?” Eduardo whispers, adjusting his grip on Mark. Dustin quickly looks up from his monitor, his eyes widening.

“Wardo?” Dustin replies, not sure if he was still dreaming or hallucinating,

“Where’s Mark’s room?”

Dustin’s eyes shift to the sleeping Mark in his arms before looking back up to Eduardo, his eyes becoming almost comically wide.

“Over there,” He points to the room farthest to the right, still closed. Eduardo nods before starting his trek, throwing one last remark over his shoulder.

“He’s gonna be asleep awhile. monitor theFacebook for me, okay?”

Dustin nods erratically before turning back to the terminal he had open, a wide smile on his face as he got past the initial shock.

He finally reaches Mark’s room, pushing the door open with care. The room was silent save for the hum of Mark’s computer. Eduardo slowly sets Mark down onto the bed, placing a blanket over him.

Immense guilt washes over him as he watches Mark sleep, letting himself fall into a chair.

He had no idea Mark felt this way. While he was in New York, he thought Mark had everything under control, not… breaking down under pressure.

He also couldn’t help but think it was his fault, too.

Every single day since he froze the account, he immensely regretted it. He can remember Mark’s frantic phone call, the way he screamed that he wasn’t going back to that life. He wonders how he was able to miss it, miss Mark beginning his descent into… this.

_God,_ what a shitty friend he is.

A dim light fills the room as Eduardo gets up again, shedding off his coat and shoes. The clock reads 6:03 am when he climbs into bed besides Mark, pulling up the blanket around both of their shoulders.

“I’m sorry, Mark,” He whispers. His eyes flutter shut against his will as he finally lets sleep overcome him too.


End file.
